It was just such a short time ago. Remember the Covid lockdown? That surreal time when we were holed up in our own houses, cut off - by law - from the rest of the world and having to communicate with others online (thank goodness for technology)? It all comes back depressingly in Argentinian directors Alejo Moguillansky and Luciana Acuña’s El Edad Media (The Middle Ages). An artistic couple and their young daughter Cleo have to work out living arrangements in their small apartment, with dad trying to direct plays through video links and mom cartwheeling around the house to keep up her dance moves. Unbeknownst to them Cleo is saving up to buy a telescope, and finds an ingenuous way of raising money. In the end, however, her transgression inspires all the family to make a major change…..In Canadian director Bruce LaBruce’s The Misandrists, be prepared to encounter the Female Liberation Army (FLA), a surrepticious gathering of terrorist women ready to overthrow the time dishonored patriarchy. This film is at once a send-up of political extremism and a serious dive into what makes up the philosophical and visceral elements of the women’s liberation movement - yes, the two themes can be compatible. LaBruce milks the absurdist tale for everything it’s worth and, as a filmmaker, no screen moment is left unturned. For example, he makes great use of the ending credits and even after those have passed the movie hasn’t exactly ended. But beware: there’s some very explicit porn and a long scene of a medical procedure you’ll need a cast iron stomach to watch…..Get ready for a fight to the death in the animated Unicorn Wars, a Spanish-French co-production by director Alberto Vásquez. Is it true that teddy bears and unicorns, those most whimsical and enchanting beings of childhood imagination, can be real enemies? The Teddy Bear March has nothing on this film’s gentle beasts who seek their arch enemy in the Magical Forest which is anything but. Of course the story is an analogy of the human condition. And these teddies, cuddly as they seemingly are, just might not be the ones to have your children take to bed with them at night.
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